After 3 Years, 82 Chibok Girls Head Home

Bring back our girls campaigners chant slogans during a protest calling on the government to rescue the remaining girls who were abducted almost three years ago, in Lagos, Nigeria. Thursday, April 13,... (AP Photo/ Sunday Alamba)

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Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari is set to meet Sunday with 82 Chibok schoolgirls freed this weekend after being kidnapped three years ago by Boko Haram extremists, while the International Committee of the Red Cross released an image of the girls boarding a helicopter to safety. The girls have landed in the capital, Abuja, reports the AP. The president said the schoolgirls were freed in exchange for detained suspected extremists in the largest negotiated release so far of the nearly 300 girls whose mass abduction in 2014 highlighted the threat of Nigeria's homegrown extremist fighters who are linked to the Islamic State group. A first group of 21 girls were released in October as Nigeria announced it had begun negotiations with the extremist group. Before Saturday's release, 195 of the girls had been captive. Now 113 of the girls remain unaccounted for.

The ICRC said it had acted as a neutral intermediary to transport the freed girls into Nigerian government custody. Long-suffering family members said they were eagerly awaiting a list of names and their "hopes and expectations are high." A Nigerian military official with knowledge of the rescue said the freed girls were near the town of Banki in Borno state near Cameroon. Boko Haram remains active in that area. On Friday, the United States and Britain issued warnings that the group was actively planning to kidnap foreigners in an area of Borno state "along the Kumshe-Banki axis." "This is a very, very exciting news for us that we have over 80 of our girls coming back again," Bukky Shonibare with the #BringBackOurGirls campaign told Sky TV. "Their life in captivity has been one that depicts suffering, it depicts the fact that they have been starved, abused." (Read more Boko Haram stories.)

Who is going to stop them from doing it again? If no one had the ability to free them in three years then Boko Haram will just do it again. Time for Nigeria to clean house.

Jim Beam

May 7, 2017 8:56 AM CDT

I would have certainly thought that when Michelle Obama took a photo holding a similar sign 3 years ago- they would have been release right on the spot. I am sure some liberal organization will praise Michelle for all that she did for these girls and give her some b/s award; now that they are some being released - albeit - brainwashed - pregnant and disease ridden.

Jerman

May 7, 2017 7:41 AM CDT

Certainly they were abused, its what those who join Boko do under the guise of fighting for Islam. Those remaining are probably pregnant with future Islamic fighters. Nigeria is a democratic country twice the size of California and the most populous in Africa with an army, navy and AF, that has served many UN peacekeeping missions. Yet, they are having difficulty containing the Islamic radicals. Northern Nigeria is mostly Muslim. An extremely important fight going on here as Nigeria could wind up in the Islamic camp.